Tipton, R-Cortez, joined a news conference call to bash President Barack Obama’s record on jobs.

“He’s inhibiting our ability to get access to capital,” Tipton said. “Governor Romney has a proven track record of not only paying down debt but being able to create jobs.”

Last week, the Obama campaign opened an attack on Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.

Romney increased his state’s debt and size of government, Obama strategist David Axelrod wrote in a memo

“Over his four years, Massachusetts’ record of job creation was among the worst in the nation,” Axelrod said.

Tipton and two businessmen from Craig, Mike Anson and Scott Cook, helped Romney return fire, blaming Obama for regulations on the financial industry and for creating uncertainty for business owners with his health insurance reform.

The national unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point in May to 8.2 percent. Colorado numbers are due to be reported June 15.

Tipton blamed the Dodd-Frank Act, which enacted tougher Wall Street and banking regulations in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Tipton said he doesn’t oppose some level of regulation, but Democrats overreached.

Tipton is part of the Republican majority that controls the House of Representatives, and he said a previous GOP majority shares some blame for running up the national debt. But this year House Republicans have passed 30 bills that he says will create jobs, and the Democratic-controlled Senate will not hear them.

“The roadblock is not the House of Representatives, it is the United States Senate,” Tipton said.

At the state Republican assembly in May, Tipton had declined to endorse any candidate in the presidential race until the primary was over. Romney secured the 1,144 delegates he needs to win the nomination last week.

Tipton is running for re-election against state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, and several minor party or unaffiliated challengers.

The presidential campaigns have been holding frequent conference calls with local leaders to back up the themes candidates are sounding nationally. Obama’s campaign held a call Monday with U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, and Lilly Ledbetter, namesake of a law Obama signed on equal pay for women.

“If Mitt Romney wants to be president, he shouldn’t have to think twice about whether he supports pursuing every possible avenue to ensure women get the same pay for the same work as men,” Ledbetter said.